Labor Day

It is a chilly morning at Birch Haven. The guest season is coming to an end. Activity has shifted from bed-making and garbage collecting to larger projects like replacing old windows and staining the rustic wood sidings of the cabins. The Labor Day weather was perfect. It was warm so that the kids could get in one last swim in Gull Lake until next summer and the humidity was low so the adults could dedicate themselves to work. Each seems to exemplify the holiday’s intent, it seems to me, to either spend the day laboring or resting from labor. Bernie and I and our two daughters and their families celebrated the ability and the responsibility of work and the ability and the responsibility of leisure.